Kickable toy

ABSTRACT

A kickable toy having a base member and a means for increasing air resistance is provided. The base member has a flexible membrane defining a boundary confining a deformable material. The means for increasing air resistance is mounted on the base member for increasing air resistance of the kickable toy to decrease the speed of free fall of the toy in air.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a toy that can be played by kicking. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to a toy that can berepeatedly kicked with a foot in an up and down manner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

From time immemorial, toys have brought joy to people, especiallychildren. A type of toy that is enjoyed by active children, as well asby many adults, is toys that are played by kicking. Such toys not onlybring entertainment to the players, they also provide exercise. Wellknown examples are soccer and beach balls. However, recently, a toy thathas been enjoying great popularity, especially among teenagers, is akickable toy call "MAGIC HACKY SACK." This is a somewhat spherical toyabout the size of a peach. It has a tough, pliable shell enclosing arelatively soft interior. This toy can be played, for example, in a gameinvolving a person repeatedly kicking the toy in an up and down fashionwithout allowing the toy to fall to the ground.

Although the MAGIC HACKY SACK can be enjoyed by energetic teenagers withquick reflexes, younger children with less developed coordination andmuscle-controlling ability may find the toy bouncing away too far andtoo fast after kicking. Therefore, such children players may have torepeatedly run after and retrieve the toy in a game. This can befrustrating to the players and may cause them to lose interest in thegame. What is needed a kickable toy that can provide enjoyment and willnot bounce with a fast speed or to a far distance (relative to ballsthat are played by kicking and MAGIC HACKY SACKs).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a kickable toy having a base member thathas a flexible membrane defining a boundary confining a deformablematerial. The kickable toy further has a means mounted on the basemember for increasing air resistance of the kickable toy to decrease thespeed of free fall of the toy in air. The present invention furtherprovides a method of making a kickable toy. The method includesenclosing a deformable material in a flexible membrane to form a basemember and connecting a means on the base member for increasing airresistance of the kickable toy to decrease the speed of free fall of thetoy in air.

In the present invention, due to the air-resistance-increasing means,the kickable toy, when kicked, will travel a less distance and will takelonger to fall to the ground than if this means is absent. This willallow even less agile people to enjoy a kicking game. Further, becauseof the deformability of the base member, even if the base member is notkicked squarely in the middle, the base member will deform to allow amore effective energy transfer to the base member, thereby resulting ina more satisfying sound and feel of impact. In some embodiments, forexample, the air-resistance-increasing means and the flexible membraneare made of the same material (e.g., the same polymeric material). Thisrenders this invention uniquely suitable for manufacture with amass-production operation and automatic control.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in thefollowing drawings, wherein like reference numerals represent likecorresponding parts in the several views:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of a kickable toyof the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view in portion of an embodiment of thepresent invention showing the base member in more detail.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a toy suitable to be played by kicking.FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of such a toy. Referring to FIG.1, the toy 10 has a base member 16 on which is connected or mounted ameans 18 for increasing air resistance (or air-resistance-increasingmeans) as the toy free falls in the air.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the base member 16 has a flexiblemembrane 20, which is polymeric. The base member 16 contains adeformable substance 22 and is made so that when it is kicked by a foot(e.g., as in impacting upon the top surface of the foot between thetoe-nails and the ankle) of a person), the base member will be deformedslightly to conform to the surface of the foot so that a large fractionof the surface of base member contacts the foot. Thus, the kicking forceis efficiently transferred to the center of gravity of the base member.In this way, even if the person is less skillful and kicks the basemember off center, the base member can still receive much of the kickingforce to produce a satisfactory impacting sound and sensation, as wellas can sail through the air as a result of the impact. Preferably, thebase member 16 has a lower surface 23 that is flatter than the sidesurfaces 25A, 25B so that it can be aimed at and kicked in an easiermanner than otherwise by a less skillful user (or player).

To provide a satisfactory impacting sound and impact sensation when thebase member 20 is kicked and yet not resulting in the toy being bouncedoff to too far a distance, preferably, the deformable substance iscapable of transferring much of the kinetic energy of the kicking bodypart (e.g., foot) upon impact into nonkinetic energy, such as heat. Forease of retrieval, when the toy is kicked vertically by an average minor(e.g. a 12-yea-old boy of 100 lb), preferably the kickable toy, unlike aresilient toy such as a volley ball, soccer ball, tennis ball, and thelike, does not travel a distance of more than 30 feet vertically. Thetoy is not resilient and does not return impact energy efficiently. Forexample, when a base member (e.g., of about the size of a peach) hits astationary concrete floor vertically at about 20 miles an hour (as bythrowing), the base member does not bounce more than 4 inches off thefloor. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the deformable substance 22 ispetroleum jelly.

The deformable substance 22 can be a semisolid or a liquid. Preferablythe deformable substance is flowable so that it does not have memory toreturn to its original intermolecular relationship (i.e., it ispermanently deformable). As used herein, the term "flowable," whenreferred to the deformable substance, describes the property that a partof a body of the substance (e.g., the content of the base member 16) canbe made to mingle with other parts of the body by receiving a force,such as mixing or agitation action using a stirrer. More preferably thedeformable substance 22 is incompressible and is a gel or gel-likesubstance, for example, partially cross-linked silicone oil, petroleumjelly, and the like. As used herein, liquid and nonresilient solids areconsidered to be incompressible. The deformable substance is selectedsuch that it is compatible with the flexible membrane. For example, ifthe flexible membrane is a woven fabric or leather sewn together, thedeformable substance can be solid particles. In another example,partially cross-linked silicone oil or petroleum jelly can be thedeformable substance when the flexible membrane is made of siliconerubber.

Alternatively, the deformable substance can be composed of solidparticles that nonrigidly and nonadhesively contacting other particlesso that adjacent particles can slide past each other when the particlesare stirred (as shown in FIG. 3). Preferably the particles have aspecific gravity of less than about 1.0 (i.e., less than about 1.0 g/ccin density) so that the kickable toy can float in water. Morepreferably, the specific gravity is about 0.2 to 0.8. If theair-resistance-increasing means is less dense than water, the deformablematerial for placement inside the base member can be denser than wateras long as the toy as a whole can float. Examples of particles that canbe used include agricultural seeds such as grains and beans (e.g., rice,mung beans, soy beans), glass beads, plastic beads (e.g., styrofoambeads, polystyrene beads, polyethylene beads, and the like), lumber yardwaste (e.g., wood chips, saw dust), and the like. The plastic beads canbe made with a hollow interior to control the density, i.e., specificgravity. Standard methods for making styrofoam beads, glass beads, andhollow plastic beads are known in the art and can be used. FIG. 3 showsan alternate embodiment with links 34 linking the air-resistanceincreasing means 18 to a base member 16 containing beads 36.

The flexible membrane 20 can be made of nonstretchable, nonresilientmaterials such as leather, woven fabrics, and polymers. In anembodiment, the base membrane is a polymeric material. The polymericsubstance that composes the flexible membrane 20 of the base member 16in FIG. 1 is silicone rubber. Alternatively, other resilientlystretchable substances such as butyl rubber, latex rubber, and the like,can be used. Because of the presence of the nonresilient, nonmemory(without memory), deformable substance in the base member, even if theflexible membrane is resilient, the base member 16 as a whole is not andtherefore does not tend to bounce far when kicked. Generally, the toydeparts from the foot at a velocity not substantially faster (i.e. notmore than about 30% faster than the foot's velocity at impact). Thislimits the distance travelled by the toy.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the air-resistance-increasing means 18 is agas-filled balloon that is integrally connected to the base member 16,preferably by means of a link 24 which has a generally elongated shapeand is thinner (i.e., smaller in the dimension perpendicular to the lineconnecting the centers of gravity of the base member 16 and theair-resistance-increasing means) than either the base member 16 or theair-resistance-increasing means 18. The air-resistance-increasing means18 is less dense and has a larger surface area than the base member 16.In this way, when the toy is free-falling, the weight of the base membercauses it to be positioned below the air-resistance-increasing means andthe link facilitates the kicking of the base member without beinghindered by the bulk of the air-resistance-increasing means. As usedherein, the term "air-resistance-increasing means" refers to a structurethat has a large surface area (which typically has a large volume aswell) and is relatively light in weight. An important reason forincorporating such air-resistance-increasing means in the kickable toyof the present invention is to allow air to encounter a large surfacearea as the toy travels through the air after being kicked. This willreduce the distance of travel and lengthen the time of travel, therebymaking it easier for a less skilled person to play.

The balloon of FIG. 1 has a polymeric, stretchable, flexible membrane,preferable one that is the same as that of the base member such that thebase member and the balloon can be formed as an integral unit. The link24, when present (as in FIG. 1), is preferably formed from the samematerial as the base member. Other flexible materials similar to thosedescribed hereinabove for the base member can be used for forming thelink or the balloon. The link 24 is optional. The base member 16 can bedirectly connected to the air-resistance-increasing means (e.g.,balloon) 18 to improve the mechanical integrity of the toy. When the toyis kicked, the air-resistance-increasing means catches the wind to slowdown the fall of the toy, thereby directing the more dense base member16 to face downward.

The balloon preferably has a valve 28 for introducing a suitable gas 30into the balloon. Various kinds of valves, for example, those found inbeach balls, basket balls, or tires can be used. Alternatively, thevalve can be an elongated part of the balloon that is tied into a knotto prevent the gas from escaping, or the balloon can be completelysealed to confine the gas therein. Preferably, the valve is positionedin a location distal from the base member to avoid being damaged whenthe base member is kicked.

The gas 30 for filling the balloon can be any commonly available gas 30such as helium, air, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, mixtures thereof, and thelike. The air resistance of the toy can be adjusted by the selection ofthe gas and blowing the balloon to a desired size. For example, if avery slow free-falling velocity is desired, a gas that is lighter thanair, such as helium, can be used to blow the balloon up to a size suchthat the toy almost floats in air.

The air-resistance-increasing means has a larger surface area than thatof the base member. This large surface provides additional surface forcoloring (usually two or more colors) to increase the attractiveness ofthe kickable toy.

The present invention has been described in the foregoing specification.The preferred embodiment is for illustrative purpose only and is not tobe interpreted as unduly limiting the scope of the invention. It is tobe understood that modifications and alterations of the invention,especially in size and shape, will be apparent to those skilled in theart without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Forexample, the various embodiments of base members andair-resistance-increasing means can be combined in differentcombinations and the relative sizes of the air-resistance-increasingmeans, the link, and the base member can be varied to accomplish thedesired rate of descend in air so that the toy can be kicked easily. Thetoy can also be used by hitting with other parts of a human body (e.g.hand) or a racket instead of kicking.

What is claimed is:
 1. A kickable toy comprising:a base member having aflexible membrane defining a boundary confining a deformable, semisolidmaterial, to deform according to the surface of a foot when kickedthereby; a means mounted on the base member for increasing airresistance of the kickable toy to decrease the speed of free fall of thetoy in air, the means including a balloon inflated with a gas forincreasing the air resistance of the kickable toy to decrease the speedof free fall in air and such that the kickable toy has an overallspecific gravity of less than 1, the specific gravity of the means beingadjustable to adjust the speed of free fall.